"Mike Mitchell" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 09:19:55 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts"
wrote:


"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
David W.E. Roberts wrote:
megasnip

Thanks for the most constructive response :-)

Now, to deal with some other responses and flesh out our reasons:

The plot is not particularly large - the floor area is roughly the same
as
the ground floor of our current 4/5 bedroom house and the garden is
smaller.

The small cul-de-sac has nothing but bungalows on it (all the same
design) -
so planning for a new 2 storey property may be an issue.

The asking price is £220k (I am told that a building plot in the area is
worth about £100k). There have been various suggestions about the cost of
a
demolish/build so I will assume at least £100k for a good quality 4
bedroom
house with PROPER room sizes - not a modern estate build with no hall or
landing and 8' * 6' 3rd and 4th bedrooms. I assume that this brand new
property would then be worth between £350k and £400k judging by prices of
upmarket detached houses in the area. There is, of course, the cost of
storage of furniture and also accomodation during the demolish/build
cycle.
So we spend around £320K (but possibly more depending on size, quality of
fittings etc., cost overruns) to get a good quality 4 bedroom house on a
smaller plot than current, in a slightly less upmarket area, West facing
garden instead of South facing garden. No sun lounge, no balcony, no view
of
the sea. Six to 18 months of hassle depending on the bugger factor.

So we could potentially make money - but wouldn't it be better to find a
run
down property at a much cheaper price? The demolish/build costs are the
same
but you aren't paying for an attractive and well maintained property. We
like this bungalow and want to live in it. We would be paying a premium
compared with a 3 bed semi with more accomodation, much more garden (they
tend to come with 80' to 100' rear gardens) and much more potential for
extension (2 storey extensions are generally more cost effective than
single
storey or loft conversions).

I didn't mention our reason for moving house. We are looking to downsize.
So
a strategy which involves a major work program to leave us with a similar
house to our current one and no equity release is not top of our agenda
:-)

The bungalow is 1930's - which means that it has a huge high loft with
real
wood beams and no cheap crap cross braced supports as found in most
modern
builds. So there is an obvious potential to make more of this loft area.
The
downside is the 2" * 4" joists. Other properties in this street have
already
had loft conversions (but no dormers).

Dormers that are "stuck on" afterwards look absolutely awful, in my
opinion. If you do go ahead with the conversion, I suggest only
Velux-style windows.

No. best rip it down and build a proper one that looks good. Waste of time
fannying around.

That way, you have a light, airy room, but the
roofline is maintained. I had them in my new-build flat in Germany and
they were great. If a property was designed from the outset with
dormer windows, then it *may* look okay, but those add-ons oftenlook
cheap and tacky.

MM